


Written in the Stars

by Mystradigans



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Coming Out, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, Pining, Post-Hogwarts, Self-Esteem Issues, Werewolf Lavender Brown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 05:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15700869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystradigans/pseuds/Mystradigans
Summary: “Lavender, look at me” she said, willing herself not to react to Lavender’s proximity to her. She could see every freckle on her face, knew them as well as she knew the constellations that the pair had studied in the astronomy tower almost every night for 7 years. Lavender still smelt of the incense they’d burnt a few hours ago when one of their regular customers had come in for a palm reading. If Parvarti was brave enough, she could lean forward just an inch and meet Lavender’s lips with her own. “What’s wrong?”





	Written in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I really want to write more f/f work but I feel like it never gets as much attention as my m/m stuff! So if you're reading, please drop a comment letting me know what you think! This was a lot of fun to write and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  
> Credit goes to my wonderful best friend Aashna for the Hindi translations <3  
> -EMILY

Parvarti ran her finger along the bookshelf, passing by a year and a half’s worth of Quibbler editions, her mother’s recipe books and Lavender’s collection of chick-lit before landing upon her copy of _Potions from a Prince_ ; the book of Snape’s potions tips Harry had made it his mission to get published after the battle of Hogwarts. The page for Wolfsbane was already folded over, spattered with a silver-ish liquid from its last use. She propped It up against her cauldron on the kitchen workbench and consulted it.

 

_On the day before the full moon, add a thimble-full of sheep’s milk and stir anti-clockwise._

She did so, slightly bemoaning that she wasn’t as good at potions as her sister. Padma was a Healer, and although her training had only improved her natural flair for making potions, she was too rushed off her feet for Parvarti to ask her for help nowadays. So she’d practised and practised, determined to keep Lavender safe during her transformations- however average Parvarti may be at potions, Lavender was worse.

 

She felt a sense of pride that she was able to look after her best friend… or whatever it was Lavender meant to her nowadays. She resolutely avoided thinking about that, it filled her with a sickening guilty dread. Because she wasn’t sure girls were supposed to feel quite this protective over their best friend or have this secret sense of relief that their best friend was dependant on them for Wolfsbane. Girls almost certainly weren’t supposed to spend so much time staring at their best friend’s bow-shaped lips; or revelling in the smell of their best friend’s scarves when they made an excuse to borrow them. So Parvarti worked hard on blocking out any doubts in her mind about the nature of her feelings for Lavender, replacing them in her head with images of her mother’s disappointment and Lavender’s disgust if they ever found out.

 

 

When she’d finished the Wolfsbane, she headed into Lavender’s tiny room in the two-bedroom flat Parvarti had inherited from her uncle Kairav. Lavender was sitting at her desk, which near enough touched the single bed, studying star charts and making notes for their horoscope column in the Quibbler.

 

“Hey ‘Varti” she said absent-mindedly. “Did you know that the thing you daren’t hope for is waiting just around the corner, according to the alignment of Venus in your third sphere?”

 

“Interesting” Parvarti said. “I have no idea what that could be. I have your potion though.”

 

“I’m going to do something reckless” Lavender continued, as if she hadn’t heard her. “And nothing’s ever gonna be the same again. Parvarti, are you sure you want me to stay in the flat tonight?”

 

Parvarti frowned. “Yes, of course Lav. We’ve been through this. The Wolfsbane has worked every time up until now, and you’ve never hurt me during a transformation-“

 

“But my tea leaves, and the stars are saying the same thing ‘Varti- I do something reckless, everything changes, what if I attack you? What if I turn you? What if I k-“- Lavender broke off, seemingly unable to finish that thought. Parvarti sighed and put the potion carefully down on the desk before sitting down on the end of Lavender’s bed and motioning for her friend to join her.

 

“Lavender, look at me” she said, willing herself not to react to Lavender’s proximity to her. She could see every freckle on her face, knew them as well as she knew the constellations that the pair had studied in the astronomy tower almost every night for 7 years. Lavender still smelt of the incense they’d burnt a few hours ago when one of their regular customers had come in for a palm reading. If Parvarti was brave enough, she could lean forward just an inch and meet Lavender’s lips with her own. “What’s wrong?”

 

“You don’t have to stick around you know” Lavender said quietly. “Me being a wolf, it’s… I don’t want it to chain you to me because you feel sorry for me. You don’t have to let me live in your apartment for free. Just… just say the word and I’ll go. I know I’m annoying, and dependant and I transform every month putting you in constant danger, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to keep being my best friend just because I’ll get upset”

 

Parvarti stared at her, confused. “Have I ever done anything to suggest that I don’t want to be ‘tethered’ to you as you put it?”

 

“No” sniffed Lavender. “But, with Ron I never realised that he didn’t love me anymore and he found me annoying and hated me even without the added wolfism. Everyone else realised, they were all talking about how deluded I was-“

 

“And I told you then and will tell you now that Ron was being an arsehole and never deserved you for a second-“

 

“But how will I _know,_ Parvarti? What happens if you start hating me and I don’t notice, and you don’t say anything about it like Ron didn’t and- and why don’t you hate me for being a werewolf?”

 

“Lavender Brown” Parvarti said firmly, putting her hand over Lavender’s. Their elaborately-decorated charm bracelets made a tinkling sound as they collided, chains tangling together just as Parvarti had dreamed about their bodies doing, on the nights when she woke up hot, sweaty and guilty. “There is nothing in the world that could make me love you less”.

 

 _Fuck._ That had come out far more inappropriately romantic than Parvarti had planned. It had sounded like something straight out of a Bollywood romance, but that was oddly fitting: Lavender did live her life in a state of melodrama that would make any film star proud. She made Parvarti feel like a Bollywood heroine too, like _Kajol_ maybe, in a beautiful dress with tears in her eyes making grand declarations of love despite what her family think. But she was supposed to be acting like a regular best friend, not _Anarkali!_

 

Lavender, however, didn’t seem to have noticed this faux-pas. She stared down at her own hands, as though she was trying to read her palms.

 

“I think I’m bisexual, Parvarti” she admitted in a choked mumble.

 

“Oh” said Parvarti, dumbstruck. “Oh!”

 

Lavender sniffled. “Yeah. I don’t know if that changes anything…”

 

“No. No, of course not at all. No. _No_ ” Parvarti hastened to reply. _Tell her! ­_ urged her brain. _Tell her you might be a lesbian! Tell her you might be in love with her! Stop sitting there like a goldfish!_ But she remained frozen to the spot, too scared to allow the feelings she’d suppressed to come to the surface even at the opportune moment.

 

There was a long, awkward silence. Finally, Lavender cleared her throat uncomfortably before taking the cup of Wolfsbane from her desk and downing it in one, grimacing at the unpleasant taste.

 

“Thanks, ‘Varti” she said. “I’ll um, I’ll see you in the morning then. If I make too much noise when I transform just cast a silencing charm, yeah? I don’t want you coming in here with the wolf again it’s so dangerous”

 

“Sure” lied Parvarti, still too preoccupied with her internal battle to protest, but knowing full well that if Lavender howled in pain during the full moon she’d be by her side immediately.

 

 

Indeed, that night Parvarti had barely gotten into bed when a drawn out, anguished whine came from Lavender’s room. Her poor, poor girl was hurting. Sliding out of bed and into her slippers, she padded across the flat and cast _alohomora_ on the door.

 

“Lav?” she whispered, entering the room. The wolf was cowering on the foot of the bed, whimpering. Even with the Wolfsbane to take away the violent characteristics, the transformation was still painful and terrifying. She hated that she couldn’t make it all better, but she could calm the wolf somewhat by stroking her fur and speaking Hindi in the same soothing rhythms her mother had used when she or Padma had a nightmare as kids.

 

 _“Main tumse pyar karthee hoon”_ she murmured, again and again, until at some point her eyes grew heavy and she fell asleep curled up against the warm, quiet wolf.

 

 

Parvarti awoke to the sound of Lavender’s snores and the tickle of her curly hair on Parvarti’s face. Lavender would be mortified to know that she snored, but Parvarti found it adorable. Lavender’s snores had been so comforting at Hogwarts, a constant audible reminder to Parvarti that she wasn’t alone during the nights that she missed her parents and wished her sister wasn’t in a different house; or later on when she couldn’t sleep for worrying about Voldemort. Now, they were equally welcome as a sign that Lavender was human once more.

 

Opening her eyes slowly, Parvarti reached across to Lavender’s sleeping form. She was naked, and though it was nothing Parvarti hadn’t seen before it still made her blush a little. She checked Lavender’s body for injuries and found only a small scratch on her cool brown skin, underneath her ear. Her wand was still in her bedroom, so she grabbed Lavender’s from the bedside table and summoned a soothing cream. Gently, she dabbed some onto the cut and caressed the other girl’s cheek, tracing lines between freckles with her thumb and wishing that she could take this moment and put it in a jewellery box, to be taken out and looked at like her Grandmother’s gold ring. And then Lavender began to stir, and Parvarti pulled away hastily.

 

“…’Varti?” mumbled Lavender. “I told you not to come in here this time, it’s too dangerous”. But she was smiling, and she placed a hand on Parvarti’s shoulder, near the strap of her camisole, to show that she wasn’t upset.

 

“Good morning” Parvarti said in response, smiling back. She was all-too aware of how close she was to Lavender, pressed up together in the single bed. She could feel Lavender’s breath against her cheek.

 

And then Lavender’s other hand was in Parvarti’s hair, and she was leaning up to press her lips against Parvarti’s, and then they were kissing; and it was better than fireworks because it was slow and light but as beautifully heart-wrenching as the swell of the harp section in an orchestra. At some point, Parvarti remembered to close her eyes, but only when the sensation of the kiss was so overwhelming that she had to block out all other senses to experience it in full. They kissed again and again, until a growl from Lavender’s stomach that sounded almost as agitated as the wolf pulled them back into giggly reality, and they remembered they needed breakfast.

 

As she watched her best friend _(girlfriend?!)_ get into her dressing gown, Parvarti grinned suddenly. “Do you think that was the reckless act your horoscope warned you about?”

 

Lavender took her hand, saying “Maybe. Do you think it changed our lives forever?”

 

Parvarti laughed and stole a quick kiss. “I certainly hope so Lav, I really do”


End file.
